Afghanistan

Troop Numbers A US Domestic Issue: Ghani

Sunday, 22 March 2015 19:21 Last Updated on Sunday, 22 March 2015 20:30 Written by Rateb Noori

President Ashraf Ghani declared that the numbers of American troops staying in Afghanistan was a complicated domestic issue of the United States, insisting the Afghan government would not interfere into it.

Ghani expressed these statements on Saturday in a briefing to the reporters, just hours before leaving to the United States along with the Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

"Issue of numbers is a very complicated domestic issue in the United States and we do not want to get into," Ghani emphasized. "We will explain the condition what we are doing, how we are bringing those efficiencies, and then we need to let the internal process take over, and arrive its decisions that serves our need, the regions, the global needs and the security of United States."

In addition, Ghani for the first time publicly expressed his concerns about the presence of Daesh militants in Afghanistan.

"Daesh's characteristic is that it is like a man-eating. It swallows its competitors. What it did in the Syria's national army is one example," Ghani said. "Here, it is not the physical presence of people from Syria or Iraq. It is the network effect."

Ghani and Abdullah left Kabul for the United States on Saturday night where they would meet the U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Congress members, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary of the State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and other senior U.S. officials.